Day 1 down and the rest of my lift to go / 188.6

<b>This is only the beginning, again </b><br />I made it through yesterday, eating exactly my PointsPlus allotment of 29. I only had three servings of fruit all day (my personal limit), but lots of vegetables. I even managed to follow all the healthy eating guidelines (except for dairy - I can never get in three dairy a day).<br /><br />The day wasn't without challenges. It started first thing in the morning when I opened our refrigerator in the garage to check on how many fresh vegetables and fruits were on hand. It's our "overflow" fridge when the one in the house is full. There wasn't a fresh vegetable or fruit in sight in the house fridge. I honestly don't think my husband would ever eat either one if I didn't insist on it.<br /><br />Instead of fresh fruits and vegetables in our extra refrigerator I found a giant cheesecake from Costco with two slices missing. What the hell?! My husband gave me some lame excuse that it was for a party at work but he forgot to take it into the office so he decided to have a couple slices. I'm not sure if that's the real story, but he insists it's true.<br /><br />When I got to the gym BOTH of "my" StairMasters were out of order. Seriously, both of them, how could that happen? I had my heart set on a good StairMaster workout. It's the cardio machine that gives me the biggest bang for the buck, easily getting my heart up in the 140 range. It's just about impossible to cheat on the StairMaster (because people are watching me it's embarrassing to slow down the speed).<br /><br />Instead of the StairMaster I decided on an elliptical workout. That's when my iPod stopped working. It wasn't that it wasn't actually working, but the wheel thing stopped working. It was on a low volume, which I couldn't adjust. I couldn't get to a playlist, but had to listen to the songs with the performers listed alphabetically. I had no idea I had so many <b>B</b>lack Eyed Peas and<b> B</b>ritney Spears songs. It was really annoying. I finally took the time to sit down on the floor and do the reset thing and now it works just fine. Of course this was after my cardio workout, which by the way was hell. The fatter I get the harder it is to do cardio. <br /><br />I didn't binge last night or eat anything that wasn't planned yeserday. Everything was entered in the online eTools. That's the first time I've done that in about two weeks.This is just the beginning. I have the rest of my life to stay on plan. <br /><br /><b>What I learned the last two weeks</b><br />There's something I've learned from my week of "not really eating that much" but gaining five pounds. It's that I have to pay attention to what I eat. I almost have to be obsessed by it. I will probably never learn to "relax" and "be at peace" with food. I know a lot of people are capable of doing this, and not stressing out about their food and they learn how to eat "normally".<br /><br />My lesson learned is that I'm not one of those people. We're all different in this world and what works for a lot of people doesn't work for me. My peace with food means that I have to be completely committed to eating healthy and smaller portions, and I have to aim for this commitment 100% of the time. I can't go off for a week and eat full-fat cheese and candy whenever the mood strikes me. The resulting weight gain is simply not worth it. <br /><br />Of course, I realize I can't be 100% perfect all the time, but it's my goal. I'm not a failure if I fall off now and then, but I can't fall off for an entire week. <br /><br /><b>Daisies</b><br />Now I'm off to plant my Gerbera Daisies I bought at Costco this morning (where I stocked up on fresh fruit and vegetables, salmon and chicken...and no cheesecake!). They're so gorgeous I can't wait to get them planted and take a picture to post here tomorrow. <br /><br />Then the gym later today when it's suppose to start raining at 5pm. Right now it's 61 degrees and sunshine. Around here you've got to enjoy that sun while you can, because it'll be gone in a few  hours and not return for days (Seattle, need I say more).

Day 1 down and the rest of my lift to go / 188.6

This is only the beginning, again I made it through yesterday, eating exactly my PointsPlus allotment of 29. I only had three servings of fruit all day (my personal limit), but lots of vegetables. I even managed to follow all the healthy eating guide…

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I Love the Today Show!

This is a late post about an awesome experience I had on April 30 at the <a href="http://www.umd.edu/">University of Maryland's</a> <i><a href="http://www.marylandday.umd.edu/">Maryland Day</a></i>.  <br /><br />Joel works for the police department as a police/911 dispatcher at UMD.  Each year, he participates in this Saturday event in order to fingerprint children.  Maryland Day was created a few years back in order to showcase what the university's departments are working on.  This year was the second year I attended.  My original intent in going was simply to get out of the house.  I had some computer stuff I wanted to do and was looking for a change of scenery in which to do it, and plus I love hanging out on college campuses - it brings back fond memories of the <a href="http://www.psu.edu/">Blue & White</a>. :)  Then on Friday, the day before the event, I happened to be perusing Facebook and realized that <a href="http://www.joybauer.com/">Joy Bauer</a> was going to be in attendance for MD Day, thanks to her Facebook status update!  Joy Bauer is a <a href="http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/20823138/ns/today-today_health">health correspondent to the Today Show</a>, the health columnist in Woman's Day magazine, and the nutritionist for the NYC Ballet & American Ballet Theatre.  I was sooooo pumped!  I LOVE the Today Show!  I watch it religiously when I work at home!  Yes!!<br /><br />So my plans for MD Day shifted because of Joy, who happens to be a UMD Alumni.  Basically, in conjunction with dining hall chefs from the university, she held 30 min cooking segments throughout the day - cooking through her latest book - <i><a href="http://astore.amazon.com/joybauer-20/detail/0061834777">Slim & Scrumptious</a></i>.  At the end of each cooking session, samples were passed around to the audience - I didn't have a sample I didn't like!  In between the cooking segments, she held mini sessions related to nutrition, fitness and weight loss.  It was all very inspirational and I learned some important things.  One of those things is that you should always have 5 go-to meals - 5 things that are easy and quick to make that don't require much thought.  By having these 5 meals, you're more likely to stay within your nutrition goals and not feel overwhelmed with choices, possibly resulting in a diet bomb!<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN2rDgUrP5nLKPkNGtKwQ_f8x1-PKfp4Y3h5iNHosT84GB6JZARlKSRRR9fX45eteOoLed3kMqpxN_uESygAZqAsbIGiw7ZBtMF_2ZyqDLmD4aEUSNMmLf6IBbf4RSZ6BqEmc7vj6Z9Wk/s1600/mejoy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN2rDgUrP5nLKPkNGtKwQ_f8x1-PKfp4Y3h5iNHosT84GB6JZARlKSRRR9fX45eteOoLed3kMqpxN_uESygAZqAsbIGiw7ZBtMF_2ZyqDLmD4aEUSNMmLf6IBbf4RSZ6BqEmc7vj6Z9Wk/s320/mejoy.jpg" width="188" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I was SO excited!</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdMot9w1diU8yDWf6l2tOD159RiMqwe58kjR8g8rZRkqtS6EMdw2KJIhJVjRjRIhZADZ9yEFrROeOuDhj4PuAJ3o5V6qC_XBXXGkX9kXYbx1kHs9-nMpe078AKAtbr3gpSz-7rtsGG9_0/s1600/May+2011+031.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdMot9w1diU8yDWf6l2tOD159RiMqwe58kjR8g8rZRkqtS6EMdw2KJIhJVjRjRIhZADZ9yEFrROeOuDhj4PuAJ3o5V6qC_XBXXGkX9kXYbx1kHs9-nMpe078AKAtbr3gpSz-7rtsGG9_0/s320/May+2011+031.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC3JgDdXocBPlDBUh7MqNmbRdslYAocFP-Z2yS-nfPQ_K_RrNo38kokPpDvpZad1AvqmlOL1kYFHcmsufIyawtX31xP2jej2YvCN10_B1_XTsk0whrPF2i_Y-ZWrsPLAN0As2Un4Miwmw/s1600/May+2011+027.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC3JgDdXocBPlDBUh7MqNmbRdslYAocFP-Z2yS-nfPQ_K_RrNo38kokPpDvpZad1AvqmlOL1kYFHcmsufIyawtX31xP2jej2YvCN10_B1_XTsk0whrPF2i_Y-ZWrsPLAN0As2Un4Miwmw/s320/May+2011+027.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />Somewhere in the mix of cooking and speaking presentations, Joy stopped to sign autographs in her book.  I bought 2 of her books, <i>Slim & Scrumptious</i> and <i><a href="http://astore.amazon.com/joybauer-20/detail/0061665754">Your Inner Skinny</a>, </i>had them signed AND had my picture taken with her.  She also gave me her personal email address and asked that I send in 3 diet/nutrition questions for the Diet SOS segment on the Today show!!!!!!!!!!  She said she'd pass the questions on to the producers and then I could Skype in and ask them live on the air.  Holy moly!!!  I have yet to send in my questions - I'm still thinking about what to ask.  But I'm so pumped!<br /><br />It was a Saturday well spent at the University of Maryland - if you're in the area I'd strongly recommend checking it out next year!

I Love the Today Show!

This is a late post about an awesome experience I had on April 30 at the University of Maryland's Maryland Day.  Joel works for the police department as a police/911 dispatcher at UMD.  Each year, he participates in this Saturday event in order to fi…

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